In the large parlor were the officers, who had just returned in succession from their reconnaissances; as they went up into the room, you could hear the clanking of their swords and their huge boots making the staircase shake. As I was coming in by the back door, not having been able to make way through the passage, George was coming out of the room; he saw me above the helmets of all these people, and cried to me: "Christian! stay outside; I am stifled here! I am coming!" Room was made for him, and we went down together into the garden, under the shelter of his stack of wood. Then he lighted a pipe, and asked me: "Well, how are you going on down there?" I told him all. "I," said he, "have already had to receive the colonel of the hussars last night. An hour after the visit of the Uhlans, there is a tap on the shutters; I open. Two squadrons of hussars were standing there, round the house; there was no way of escape." "'Open!' "I obey. The colonel, a sort of a wolf, whom I saw just now going to your house, enters the first, pistol in hand; he examines all round: 'You are alone?' "'Yes; with my wife.' "'Very well!' "Then he went into the passage, and called an aide-de-camp. Three or four soldiers came in; they carry chairs and a table into the kitchen. The colonel unfolds a large map upon the floor; he takes off his boots, and lays himself upon it. Then he calls: 'Such a one, are you here?' "'Present, colonel.' "Then six or seven captains and lieutenants enter. "'Such an one, do you see the road to Metting!' "They had all taken small maps out of their pockets. "'Yes, colonel.' "'And from Metting to Sarrebourg?' "'Yes, colonel.' "'Tell me the names.' "And the officer named the villages, the farms, the streams, the rivers, the clumps of wood, the curves in the road, and even the intersection of footpaths. "The colonel followed with his nail. "'That will do! Now go and take twenty men and push on as far as St. Jean, by such a road. You will see! In case of resistance, you will inform me. Come, sharp!' "And the officer goes off. "The colonel, still lying upon his map, calls another. "'Present, colonel.' "'You see Lixheim?' "'Yes, colonel.' "And so on. "In half an hour's time, he had sent off a whole squadron on reconnaissances to Sarrebourg, Lixheim, Diemeringen, Luetzelbourg, Fenetrange, everywhere in that direction. And when they had all started, except twenty or thirty horses left behind, he got up from the floor, and said to me: 'You will give me a good bed, and you will prepare breakfast for to-morrow at seven o'clock; all those officers will breakfast with me: they will have good appetites. You have poultry and bacon. Your wife is a good cook, I know; and you have good wine. I require that everything shall be good. You hear me!'